I emptied an old terracotta pot the other day, and there was a mahoosive slug hiding in the bottom of it (as well as numerous other small ones. The big one got chopped in half with my weeding knife. I left the others in the plant pot and went off to do some digging on the other side of the garden. When I came back, all of the slugs had gone, the sparrows and blackbirds had got a bit of protien in their diet! Strangely enough they were patrolling the bit I'd dug as well for the worms.

The male blackbird who's resident in the rowan tree with is missus makes me laugh. When the weather was really bad, not only did I put a suet block in the hanging feeder, I put one on the bird table, too, so he could have some. He was very funny chasing the sparrows away from HIS dinner, and even had a go at the starlings (until joined by their mates). He tells me off regularly when I'm pottering about on the patio.

As for slugs, the frogs the next-door neighbour raises in his pond (he's got an allotment and as a good Yorkshireman doesn't like spending hard earned brass on fancy slug deterrents when they can be a dinner for something useful), we get a couple of escapees in our garden that tend to see off the smaller slugs. As I'm going to be doing veg this year out of necessity, I think the nematodes will be the way to go. Both the nemaslug and the nemasys grow-your-own, as well as the slug-gone pellets around the brassicas. I really don't like eating anything that's been home to creepy-crawlies, so keeping them off my veggies is a priority.

Saltski, we had the same problem at a student house I shared at Uni. I was OK as I was in an upstairs room, my mate wasn't so lucky. We put pellets down around the outside of the house, and a few by the back door on the inside. We used a strong salt solution and shoved that down the sink every couple of weeks, too, in case they were getting in that way. It didn't solve the problem completely, but it did cut it down A LOT.

If you can find out where the blighters are getting in (we think it was under our back door, as it didn't fit very well), then concentrate on that area. I've also heard they don't like black bitumenous paint, so you could try painting some of that on the floor next to the house (unless it would look awful, we have a tarmac drive, so it wouldn't notice - not that you'd need it as tarmac has bitumen in it already). I used to have one or two come into the kitchen every year, until I put a magic mat down by the back door (more for my dogs' muddy paws more than anything else), since that's been down I haven't seen any. I think the going across the fabric bit is too much like hard work!

I use nematodes - yes, they are a bit pricey but I use them just twice between spring (when its warm enough) and autumn. They are effective. I also occasionally use the odd sprinkling of organic pellets around new seedlings or valuable plants 'just in case'. Useage of nematodes does cut down numbers. I keep meaning to do the night patrols with a sharp pair of scissors (or a bucket of strong salt water) but never get around to it!

It's the nighttime snip for me, I imagine the resident hedgehog wonders why his meals are all handy bite size chunks. I do use friendly pellets too early in the season (just done it today) to try to keep numbers down a little.

Im a snipper too I used to collect them using a pair of silicone tongs from the pound shop and then bung them in a bucket of water but i'd feel bad when they took so long to drown! So I took advice from my elderly cheeky chappie neighbour and now "cut there flipping heads off ,they won't know nothing its so quick, maid don't be a wuss" Its gotta be a better way to go then being covered in salt or bleach or poisoned.

I use slug pellets - don't all shriek. I've noticed that the birds don't touch the dead slugs, then I read an article that said that slug pellets weren't harmful to birds because it makes slugs unpalatable so birds don't eat them. In fact, birds prefer their slugs alive and they prefer worms anyway. If birds really liked slugs there wouldn't be so many of them.

Saltski, we had the same problem at a student house I shared at Uni. I was OK as I was in an upstairs room, my mate wasn't so lucky. We put pellets down around the outside of the house, and a few by the back door on the inside. We used a strong salt solution and shoved that down the sink every couple of weeks, too, in case they were getting in that way. It didn't solve the problem completely, but it did cut it down A LOT.

If you can find out where the blighters are getting in (we think it was under our back door, as it didn't fit very well), then concentrate on that area. I've also heard they don't like black bitumenous paint, so you could try painting some of that on the floor next to the house (unless it would look awful, we have a tarmac drive, so it wouldn't notice - not that you'd need it as tarmac has bitumen in it already). I used to have one or two come into the kitchen every year, until I put a magic mat down by the back door (more for my dogs' muddy paws more than anything else), since that's been down I haven't seen any. I think the going across the fabric bit is too much like hard work!

I might try the fabric. The problem I have I THINK is thast they're living/hatching under the floor as it's probably dirt as the house is 80 years old, then they crawl up the internal walls and come up through the gap between the laminate floor and door frames/skirting etc. I have sealed where possible but they still get through!

I might try the bitumen paint and paint it on the damp proof course, I have been meaning to do something like this because I have seen houses that are rendered like mine with the dark paint on the DPC and they look very neat. I was sucessful with salt at the extremities like doors etc, but am limited with a 1yr old who is learning to walk.

I do hate slugs too, especially as I grow arge numbers of hostas, but I could no more chop them in half than fly! I have found copper collars on pots helpful, some of the dry granular things help a bit, but grease on pots just doesn't do it - there is a wild life friendly slug pellet that works and doesn't seem to harm anything else.

Nematodea do work, are very expensive and such hard work to use, besides which, once your patch is clear, all the neighbours slugs move in so it doesn't last long as nature abhors a vaccuum! I have been known to use them on a small area of ground I wanted clear for a while for a special reason, not tried them in my many pots yet, might consider that as the work in dilution and washing in may be slightly less - not at all sure about it though.

Hi all. the problem with beer traps i have found is that when you have them on your allotment and you have not visited it fir a couple of days the smell of the beer going off is stomach churning , No this year I am going with the Nematodes at €27 for 6 weeks and if that doe'st work I will try flour water mix .

Saltski, try pulling a couple of floorboards up in the worst areas, and shoving some slug pellets down, you could also try putting copper strips down in areas where the worst infestations are, to try and contain them in one area. It is difficult when you've a little one about, as you have to be so careful what you use. Then again, you don't want LO picking up a slug and trying to eat it. Scooping up mashed slug from a little one's mouth is gross - my friend's little boy thought they might be good to eat, my friend and I were trying not to be sick - it was her boy so she did the scooping. Yuk.

Oh dear, that has quite put me off my afternoon tea!! My mother used to tell about me, aged around 2, coming in delighted with the 'currants' I had found, we lived in the country and there were rabbits about ................!! Not as bad as slugs thiugh - yucky yucky